Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (22 page)

Laishun forgot what he was supposed to say next. He looked toward Xu Sanguan, but Xu Sanguan merely twisted his head in Laixi’s direction. The waiter had already begun to take Laixi’s order.

Laixi tapped the table with his fingertips, but he used a voice every bit as earsplitting as Laishun’s as he called out to the waiter, “A plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine.”

Laixi also forgot what he was supposed to say next.

The waiter asked, “Should I warm the wine up for you?”

The two brothers turned questioningly toward Xu Sanguan. Xu Sanguan once again waved his right arm back and forth through the air, proclaiming in a magisterial tone, “Of course.”

After the waiter left, Xu Sanguan lowered his voice. “I didn’t tell you to scream. I just wanted you to speak up. What were you shouting about? It’s not like this is a fight or something. And Laishun, next time you should use your fingers, not your fist. Otherwise you might just break the table in two. And don’t ever forget the last part about warming up the wine. As soon as they hear you say the last part, they’ll know that you’re a regular at a restaurant. That’s the main thing.”

After they ate the fried pork livers and drank the wine, they returned to the boat. Laixi untied the rope from its mooring and pushed the boat away from the embankment with the bamboo pole while Laishun stood at the stern rowing with the oar. When they maneuvered the boat beyond the bank and out into the middle of the river, Laishun called out, “On to Tiger’s Head Bridge.”

His body rocked back and forth as he rowed, and the oar sang as it first divided, then danced above the river’s flow. Xu Sanguan sat at the prow of the barge, just behind Laixi, watching the bamboo pole move gracefully through his hands. Whenever they reached a bridge, Laixi would prop the pole against the foundations, ensuring a smooth passage through the passageway beneath the arch.

The afternoon light faded, and the sunlight no longer shone quite as warmly across their faces. As they rowed past Huang’s Inn, a fresh breeze began to blow, and the reeds on either side of the river rustled and sang. As Xu Sanguan sat on the barge’s prow, waves of cold shivered through his body. He wrapped himself in his cotton-padded jacket, his hands grasping his knees so that he curled himself into a kind of ball.

Laishun, still rowing at the stern, shouted at him, “Go down into the cabin. We don’t need you to help out up here anyway. Might as well go take a nap in the cabin.”

Laixi added, “Go on down to the cabin.”

Xu Sanguan, noting the gusto with which the breathless and sweat-drenched Laishun was throwing himself into his rowing, said, “You sold two bowls of blood, but you look so energetic that you’d never know.”

Laishun said, “When we first started out, my legs felt a little weak, but not now. Ask Laixi if his legs are still weak.”

“They were a while ago, but not now.”

Laishun said to Laixi, “When we get to Seven-Mile Fort, let’s sell two more bowls of blood. What do you think?”

“Sure. It’s thirty-five
yuan,
right?”

Xu Sanguan said to them, “You two are still so young. I really can’t keep up with you. I’m getting old. I’m sitting here shivering from head to toe. I’m going down to the cabin to sleep.”

As he spoke, Xu Sanguan opened the cabin hatch, covered himself with the quilt, lay down, and fell asleep. By the time he awoke, it was already dark outside, and the barge was nestled against the riverbank. Emerging from the cabin, he saw the brothers standing by a tree. He watched by the light of the moon as they struggled to break a branch as thick as a man’s arm from the trunk. After they pulled it free, they realized that it was too long, so they snapped it in half with their feet, picked up the thicker of the two halves, and walked back to the side of the boat. Laixi placed one end of the branch in the ground and held it steady as Laishun picked up a rock and began to pound it into the ground. After five strokes, only about six inches of the branch protruded from the soil. Laixi fetched a rope from the deck of the barge and tied it around the branch.

When they noticed that Xu Sanguan was standing on deck, they said, “You’re up.”

Xu Sanguan gazed past them. It was pitch dark, save for a few scattered lights in the distance. “Where are we?”

Laixi replied, “I don’t know where we are, but we’re not in Tiger’s Head Bridge yet.”

They lit the stove, cooked dinner on the moonlit deck, and ate steaming bowls of rice in the cold winter breeze. When Xu Sanguan finished eating, his body began to feel warmer. “I’m warmer now. Even my hands are warm.”

The three men lay down to sleep in the cabin. Xu Sanguan was still in the middle, under their quilt, his body pressed close to their bodies. Though the three men were crowded together, the two brothers were very happy. Having earned thirty-five
yuan
in a single day for their blood, they suddenly felt that earning money wasn’t nearly as hard as they had once thought. They told Xu Sanguan that they had decided not to work the barge anymore, that when they had finished their work in the fields, they would no longer need to earn whatever extra cash the boat would afford them, because working the barge was too hard and left them too exhausted. If they needed extra money, they would sell their blood instead.

Laixi said, “This selling blood business is really great. Besides the money itself, you also get to eat fried pork livers and drink yellow rice wine. Usually we wouldn’t even think of going to a restaurant and eating such delicious fried pork livers. When we get to Seven-Mile Fort, we’re going to sell blood again.”

“Don’t even think about it. You can’t sell blood again when you get to Seven-Mile Fort.” Xu Sanguan jabbed the air with his fingers for emphasis. “When I was young I was just the same. I thought selling blood was like shaking money from a tree. When I ran out or needed a little extra, I could always give the tree a shake, and the money would come tumbling down. But that’s not how it is at all. I still remember the first time I ever went to sell blood. Two friends of mine showed me how it was done. One was named Ah Fang, and the other was Genlong. Where are they now? Ah Fang’s a wreck, and Genlong died selling blood. Don’t you two even think about selling too much blood. Each time you sell, be sure to rest up for at least three months before you go again, unless you absolutely need the money. If you keep on selling blood, you’ll ruin your health. Remember what I’m telling you now, because I’ve been there and back.”

Xu Sanguan stretched out his arms, gave them each a light slap. “This time out I sold blood at Lin’s Pier, and then I sold some more just three days later at Hundred-Mile. When I went to sell blood four days later at Pine Grove, I passed out. The doctor said I was in shock. That means I was completely out of it. So they gave me a transfusion of seven hundred milliliters of blood. That and the money they charged to save me meant that the first two times I sold blood were a complete waste. I ended up buying blood back instead of selling it. I almost died in Pine Grove.”

Xu Sanguan sighed deeply. “I don’t have any choice in the matter. I have to keep on selling blood because my son’s seriously ill in the hospital in Shanghai, and if I don’t find a way to collect the money, the doctors will stop giving him the shots and medicine that he needs. But my blood’s gotten thinner over the years. I’m not like you two. One bowl of your blood is as good as two of mine. I was planning to sell some more at Seven-Mile Fort and at Changning, but now I don’t dare, because if I sell blood one more time, I’ll probably sell my life along with it.

“I’ve earned about seventy
yuan
so far. I know that won’t be enough to cure my son. So I guess I’ll just have to find some other way to earn the money when I get to Shanghai.”

Laixi said, “You say one bowl of our blood is as thick as two of yours. Does that mean that one bowl of our blood is worth more than two of yours? We all have round blood, right? When we get to Seven-Mile Fort, why don’t you buy a bowl of our blood? We’ll sell you one bowl of our blood, and that way you’ll be able to sell
two
bowls to the hospital.”

Xu Sanguan thought this was a good idea, but he replied, “How could I possibly take your blood away from you?”

Laixi replied, “If we don’t sell it to
you,
we’ll just end up selling it to someone else.”

Laishun added, “It’s better to do business with a friend than a stranger, after all.”

“You need to row the barge. You need to save some strength for yourselves.”

“I have an idea,” Laixi said. “We can conserve our strength. We’ll each sell one bowl to you. If we each sell you one bowl, you’ll be buying two bowls all together. That way when you get to Changning, you’ll be able to sell four bowls.”

Xu Sanguan smiled. “The most you can sell at a time is two bowls.” Then he added, “All right then. I’ll buy just one bowl of your blood, but I’m only doing it on account of my son. Anyway, I can’t afford two bowls of blood. If I buy one bowl of your blood, I’ll be able to sell two when I get to Changning. That means I’ll have earned an extra bowl’s worth of blood money.”

Just as Xu Sanguan finished speaking, the brothers’ snores began to resonate through the cabin. Their legs once more crossed atop his own. They made his back hurt and his waist ache, but he was warm because of the heat of their young bodies. And so he lay there as the wind whistled outside the little cabin, sweeping whorls of dust down from the deck, through the hatch that led to the cabin, and onto his face and shoulders. He could see a few pale stars through the hatch, and though he could not see the moon, he saw the way the moonlight frosted the night sky. He lay for a while looking at the sky, then closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the water beating against the hull, so close that it seemed to be slapping against his own ears.

Five days later they arrived in Seven-Mile Fort. The silk factory at Seven-Mile Fort was about a mile outside of town, so they made straight for the hospital. When they arrived at the front door of the hospital, Xu Sanguan called them back. “Don’t go in yet. Now that we know where the hospital is, we should go to the river.” He added, “Laixi, you haven’t drunk any water yet.”

Laixi said, “I shouldn’t drink anything this time. If I’m going to give you some blood, then I can’t drink any water.”

Xu Sanguan slapped his own head. “As soon as I saw a hospital, all I could think about was drinking water. I almost forgot that this time you’re selling the blood to me—” Xu Sanguan stopped short. “Laixi, I still think you should really drink a little bit of water. They say you should never take advantage of your brother.”

Laishun said, “You aren’t taking advantage of anyone.”

Laixi said, “I’m not going to drink any water. If you were in my place, I’m sure you wouldn’t drink any either.”

Xu Sanguan was forced to agree. If he had been in Laixi’s place, he wouldn’t drink any water either. “If I can’t convince you to the contrary, all I can do is let you do what you think best.”

The three men proceeded to the blood donation room inside the hospital. When the blood chief at Seven-Mile Fort Hospital heard them out, he pointed his finger toward Laixi and said, “So you’re selling your blood to me.” He pointed in Xu Sanguan’s direction. “And then you want me to sell it back to him?”

When he saw them nod, he burst into laughter and pointed at his own chair. “I’ve sat in this chair for thirteen years now. I’ve seen thousands of people come to sell their blood. But this is the first time I’ve ever had someone ask to buy and sell blood at the same time.”

Laixi said, “Maybe this is a good omen. Maybe it means you’ll be in luck this year.”

“That’s right,” Xu Sanguan added. “Nothing like this has ever happened anywhere else either. Laixi and I aren’t even from the same town, but we happened to meet on the road. And it just so happens that he wants to sell blood and I want to buy some. It’s one in a million that we ran into each other, and now we’ve been lucky enough to run into you. Maybe the good luck is catching.”

The blood chief of Seven-Mile Fort unwittingly nodded his head. “Certainly is a real coincidence. Who knows? You might be right. Maybe I’ll get lucky too.” Then he shook his head, “Then again, it’s hard to say. Maybe this year will be disastrous. They say that coming across something strange is sometimes inauspicious. You must have heard the old saying. If a bunch of frogs crosses the street in front of you, or it starts to rain bugs, or if your chicken crows at dawn instead of the rooster, it’s sure to be a bad year.”

Xu Sanguan and the brothers discussed these matters with the blood chief of Seven-Mile Fort for well over an hour before he finally consented to Laixi selling his blood to Xu Sanguan. When they finished the transaction, the three men emerged from the hospital gate, and Xu Sanguan said, “Laixi, we’ll take you to a restaurant to eat a plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine.”

Laixi shook his head. “I only sold one bowl of blood today. I can do without eating the pork livers, and I can do without the wine.”

Xu Sanguan said, “Laixi, you can’t be stingy with blood money. You sold blood, not sweat. If it was sweat, you could drink a bowl or two of water to make up for what you lost. But to restore your blood, you need to have the fried pork livers. Eat. Listen to me. I’ve been through all this before.”

Laixi said, “It’s really not a problem. Didn’t you say selling blood is just like sleeping with a woman? If people had to eat fried pork livers every time they did it, where would that leave you?”

Xu Sanguan shook his head. “Selling blood isn’t the same thing as doing it with a woman.”

Laishun said, “It’s the same thing.”

Xu Sanguan said, “What do you know about it?”

Laishun said, “That’s what you told us.”

Xu Sanguan said, “I may have said that, but it wasn’t true.”

Laixi said, “I’m fine now. My legs feel a little rubbery, as if I walked a really long way, but that’s all. If I rest for a little while, they won’t feel rubbery anymore.”

Xu Sanguan said, “Listen to me. You still have to eat the fried pork livers.”